Escape from Auschwitz

Date: April 5, 1944 • Location: Brzezinka, Poland

Siegfried Lederer, a Czech Jew, escaped from Auschwitz with the aid of an SS officer who opposed the Holocaust.

The history of the Jews in the Czech lands, historically the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, including the modern Czech Republic, goes back at least 1,100 years. There is evidence that Jews have lived in Moravia and Bohemia since as early as the 10th century. Jewish communities flourished here specifically in the 13th, 16th, 17th centuries, and again in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Local Jews were mostly murdered in the Holocaust, or exiled at various points. As of 2021, there were only about 3,000 Jews officially registered in the Czech Republic, albeit the actual number is probably as much as ten times higher.